Stories for August 4th 2015

The United States is closer to begin exporting oil. The Senate Energy Committee passed a bill last week that would lift a decades-old ban on the export of crude oil. The 22-member panel approved the initiative to allow the US to export oil and boost state revenue-sharing for offshore oil and gas drilling by a vote of 12-10.

A whale appeared in the marina of one of Buenos Aires' most exclusive up market neighborhoods on Monday, periodically surfacing alongside luxury yachts while hundreds of onlookers tried to capture the moment with smart phones.

British oil major BP has halted its deepwater exploration activities off Uruguay as it prioritises lower-risk projects at a time of low international prices, an official at Uruguay's state-owned oil company Ancap said on Monday.

US President Barack Obama has unveiled what he called “the biggest, most important step we have ever taken” in tackling climate change. The aim of the revised Clean Power Plan is to cut greenhouse gas emissions from US power stations by nearly a third within 15 years.

Landlords in England will be expected to evict tenants who lose the right to live in the UK under new measures to clamp down on illegal immigration. They will be able to end tenancies, sometimes without a court order, when asylum requests fail, ministers say.

The first shipment to onshore facilities has been made from the offshore gas field discovered in 2009 in the Gulf of Venezuela by Spain's Repsol and Italy's Eni, Venezuelan officials said.President Nicolas Maduro called the arrival of the gas a historic event during a ceremony on Saturday to mark the completion of the first shipment.

Venezuelan election officials rejected a high-profile opposition leader's attempt to register as a candidate Monday for upcoming congressional elections. Former congresswoman Maria Corina Machado announced that the National Elections Council had rejected her attempt to register to run in the Dec. 6 elections and called it a grotesque violation of her rights.

Puerto Rico's Government Development Bank announced Monday that it was only able to make a partial payment on its Public Finance Corporation (PFC) debt service due over the weekend. In response to the non-payment of the full service, credit rating agency Moody's said it viewed the situation as a default.